My India stories just kind petered out, huh? Well it turns out I had a wonderful last weekend in India traveling around and then promptly got direly ill for my last 3 days of work. So, between recovery and waiting to get pictures from other people and being banished from the computer as Brie works on NaNoWriMo, I’m just getting to writing about the rest of my trip

Mahabaleswar
Saturday morning Lori, Cliff and I trekked down to Mahabaleswar. Mahabaleswar is a hill station, which is a tourist destination located high in the hills or mountains. Hill stations are very popular in the region.

The trek was about two and a half hours, which sounds like an awfully long drive for a day trip, but the beautiful drive through the mountains and small towns (along with my iPod) made for a very pleasant drive.

Mahabaleswar is renowned for having some of the best strawberries in the world. Unfortunately we were there about two weeks before the harvest, so we couldn’t verify the claim. The main tourist draw seemed to be a fair-like area, with horses and boats to ride and a manually operated ferris wheel that looked like it was responsible for most of the area’s tetanus incidents.

We skipped past the tourist area and had our driver take us around to the look out spots at the top of the mountains so we could walk around and enjoy the view. The views were incredible, and with the rainy season just recently ended everything was lush and green. There were a few distant waterfalls that I imagine were lot more impressive closer to the rainy season.

I got to ride a horse for the first time in my life from one lookout point to another, but for the most part we walked with the occasional car ride to the next area. We passed a lot of Indian tourists on the paths, many of which asked us about where we were from and were very curious about us in general.

Here I noticed that there is almost no wildlife in India other than the various beasts of burden, birds and monkeys there is no other life to be seen. At one point we saw a chipmunk, and the locals seemed to be just as surprised to see it as we were.

As the day started to wind down we started heading back to Pune. Our driver took us to a temple (I believe Ganesh’s daughter). Nobody really spoke English there so I wasn’t quite sure what to do other than take my shoes off and not take pictures. So we just stood inside reverently for a few minutes as people poured in and out with their offerings and prayers.

Our driver was anxious to start the trip back before dark, so we decided to head out. He did stop at a town about half-way back in the mountains that was having a small festival. We finished out our day watching the sunset over the mountains while other attendees unsuccessfully attempted to paraglide on the plateaus.

Karla Caves
The next day was our last free day in India and we were being joined by some new coworkers, including our boss. We wanted to stick with something a little closer than Mahableswar since we figured our new arrivals would be a little tired. So we decided for a more conservative drive to another hill station, Lonavala.

Unfortunately after arriving at Lonavala it was clear that it was not going to be a great destination. The weather was much warmer and most of the area had already started to dry out and lose it’s color. At our first stop we were accosted by some very committed sales-children who more or less repeated the same sales slogan for their food and drinks constantly until we left the area. We decided to abandon Lonavala and make for the nearby Karla Caves, a 2,000+ year old Buddhist cave.

While we were driving we got to see something that is surprisingly rare in India, a car accident. It was just a small fender bender, but what was really of note is how they exchange insurance information. That is, they don’t really have insurance there so what generally happens is they settle car accidents by beating the crap out of each other.

We arrived at Karla Caves and found it completely packed. It turns out that there was a holiday celebration going on at the base of the mountain, below the parking area for the caves. The layout of the caves were similar to those on Elephenta Island in Mumbai. There was a long series of step stone steps lined with vendors until you get to the holy area at the top. The sounds of drums and other music carried up the mountain from below. The caves were split into two sections: one that appeared to be simply carved out rooms and beds for the monks, and the second separate section that had the ornate religious carvings (see pictures below).

In the holy area there were some women chanting around a small fire in some sort of ceremony. I wasn’t able to find anyone who spoke enough English to ask what it was for. There were also several children trying to toss coins onto one the largest carving in the cave. I asked and they said that if they could get the coin to stick up there they would have good luck.

Most of the adults must have been at the party below, because the area was covered with children, and they were all interested in us. Several groups of children asked us to take their picture, followed us around asking questions about us and generally showing off their English speaking abilities. At some point a toddler walked up to me, seemingly out of nowhere, and extend his hand for a handshake. I obliged and all of the ten children that were following me suddenly also had to shake my hand as well. It was a very sublime experience to be just completely adored by some many children.

Some of us were interested in attending the celebration below, so we asked our driver how to get down there. This was the first time it was recommended that we not go somewhere by ourselves. Our driver said the people had likely been drinking all day and that it wouldn’t be safe without him, and he’d have to stay with the car to make sure it wasn’t damaged. So instead we retired to dinner and ended our last free day in India.

I think that I must have been too active and had too little sleep as I wound up getting very very very ill the next day. I wound up leaving work early to alternate between shivering with a high fever and sleeping for the next 24 hours and then getting ready for my trip home.

Turns out I missed some exciting political Indian drama while I out. There’s a political party in the region that’s against other areas of India taking jobs in their region and promotes violence against those that do. The party leader was arrested that day and the party members protested by throwing rocks and lighting things on fire and throwing rocks that were on fire. Luckily it’s a small political party and things didn’t get too out of control, but it was alarming nonetheless.

Other than my illness I had an amazing trip and had I not gotten sick I would have definitely wanted to go back just for fun. There are so many stories that I just don’t have the space to tell. Other than our hotel, the food was great and the people were wonderful. I was especially impressed at how family oriented everyone is. After getting sick I’m not so sure that I am excited to go back. I guess we’ll have to see how well I did training people to see whether or not I will be going back for work someday. Now I just need to wait for some good weather to break out my new cricket bat.

(Apparently I bought a cricket bat.)

Click for Slideshow

I was proud to have voted in this election, moreso than in my limited other elections.

I felt as though I was finally supporting a candidate instead of trying my damnedest to block another.

Barack Obama has a way to instilling hope and dreams in people in a way that I can only imagine JFK did.

No, I do not believe that Obama can do anything and everything for this country, but I do believe that he will surround himself with the proper support network, and I believe that he has a stronger faith in this country and what it is, should be, and can be. Or rather, I think he has a stronger belief in my interpretation of the Founding Fathers’ beliefs.

I did not vote for Obama based on his race, though I am sure that there are some voters who did, just as I am sure that there are some voters who did not vote for him because of it. And even though I strive to be as color-blind as possible, I will admit that I felt a wave of excitement that the day had finally come when a black man had been voted in as President Elect.

There were many reasons I chose to vote for Obama. Among them are his first choice as a presidential candidate, that of his running mate. I did not know about Biden before the election, nor did I know about Palin. After the parties took off running, though, I could not have voted for a team that would have put Palin second in command of our country. She is a highly successful woman, and she could connect with a large portion of the country, but she was not prepared to run along side a presidential candidate. She needed national and international knowledge that she simply did not have.

Obama might be able to inspire hope, but this ability is based in his intellect, I believe. McCain inspired nothing but distate in me, and his ability was based on his intellect as well. They used it in very different matters in trying to tell the American people why they were each best suited to be the next President. Biden was able to calm me, based on his intellect. Palin did nothing that I was able to see with her intellectual abilities.

I’ve decided to be crazy and do the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year.

So far, I’m going pretty well. I’m a half day ahead. I know this, as I am a major dork, and I set up an google doc spreadsheet to track where I should be at the end of each day, where I am, both in word counts and percentiles.

I’m either doing exceptonally well as far as my content goes, or really poorly. I’m at over 10,000 (out of the 50k challenge to be written from November 1 through November 30) and I haven’t yet gotten to write about the largest aspect of my story development (and the title).

Sorry, won’t tell you what it’s about. If you want to try to track me down, I’m HippieLunatic on Nano’s site. My title is listed there. Though it’s a tiny bit misleading.

I believe some people in Nevada and North Carolina have a twisted idea of prayer.

I believe in asking for God’s Will to be done.
I do not believe I will always know what the Will is.
To pray for a specific outcome is ridiculous in my opinion.
To work for an outcome, very much less so, in that God needs hands and feet to accomplish things on our plane of existence.

I personally believe that Obama and Biden are the better candidates in this election cycle. (I have not canvassed for them, for many lame and inexcusable reasons. However, I will be voting, as either candidate needs pro-active people to go to the polls.) But even though I want Obama and Biden to win this campaign, I would never take it upon myself to pray for it. My prayers are that God will help to provide the outcome that will lead this country in the direction it needs to take.

And if McCain or Palin is the next President, so be it. Perhaps the country needs to fall even further into a pit before it can start to climb back up. Much as I curse being late in the morning, I am often thankful for the delays when I pass that multiple car accident.